Collaborative incident media recording system

ABSTRACT

Methods for responding to a potential incident are provided in which data about the potential incident is received from a first remote sensing unit. Additional remote sensing units are identified that may have additional data about the potential incident, and additional data about the potential incident is received from at least some of these additional remote sensing units. The totality of the received data is then analyzed, and at least one remote entity is automatically notified regarding the occurrence of the potential incident.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §120 as acontinuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 12/498,537, filed Jul. 7,2009, which itself is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.11/465,154, filed Aug. 17, 2006, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,570,158, the entirecontents of which are incorporated by reference herein as if set forthin their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to information gathering and, moreparticularly, to systems and methods for gathering information relatingto a specific incident.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Numerous events or “incidents” occur which may require action by remoteresources and/or which may be studied for some reason at a later time(e.g., as part of a later court proceeding or investigation, todetermine what happened or what went wrong, etc.). Herein, the term“incident” is used to refer to a physical occurrence and/or a collectionof physical occurrences for which it may be desirable to collectreal-time or near real-time data and/or which may initiate the need forresponsive actions. One exemplary “incident” is an automobile accident.When an automobile accident occurs, it may trigger a variety of actionsand/or later proceedings. For example, in response to an automobileaccident, police, fire, ambulance and/or department of transportationresources may be sent to the scene of the accident. Local hospitals mayreceive patients who were injured in the accident. Automobile insurancecompanies may receive claims relating to the accident, and may need togather data regarding the accident in order to determine fault. Courtproceedings may ultimately be initiated by individuals involved in theaccident. Family members of individuals involved in the accident mayneed to be notified about the accident. Local television and radiostations may report the accident as part of news and/or traffic reports.Tow truck services may need to be dispatched to tow away cars damaged inthe accident. These are just a few examples of the numerous actions thatmay be required as a result of one exemplary incident.

In response to many incidents today, little or no data relating to theincident may be collected in real time and/or in near real time.Moreover, the response to many common incidents is often formed in apiecemeal fashion and may be heavily dependent on individualsrecognizing the actions that need to be taken and then initiating thoseactions. Improved methods and systems for responding to incidents may bedesirable to enhance the collection of data regarding the incidentand/or to more quickly and efficiently initiate responsive actions thatmay be desirable in light of the incident.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Pursuant to embodiments of the present invention, methods foridentifying and responding to an incident are provided in which datarelating to the incident is collected via one or more sensors of aremote sensing unit. This data is then analyzed to determine if anincident has occurred. Upon determining that an incident has in factoccurred, additional remote sensing units may be identified that mayhave additional data about the incident (i.e., by identifying otherremote sensing units who were in the general vicinity at the time thatthe incident occurred). The identified remote sensing units may then becontacted in order to obtain additional sensor data collected by thoseremote sensing units regarding the incident.

After additional sensor data is received from the identified remotesensing units, further analysis may be performed in an effort to morespecifically identify the type of incident that has occurred. Inaddition, each remote sensing unit may tag data collected around thetime of the incident to ensure that it is not later overwritten. In someembodiments, one or more remote entities may be automatically notifiedregarding the occurrence of the incident.

Pursuant to further embodiments of the present invention, remote sensingunits are provided which include a bank of sensors that collect senseddata. The remote sensing units also include a storage unit that storesthe collected data, and a processor that may be used to analyze thecollected data to determine if an incident has occurred. These unitsalso include a communications unit which may be used to request andreceive additional data about the incident from other remote sensingunits upon determining that an incident has occurred.

Pursuant to yet additional embodiments of the present invention, methodsfor responding to an incident are provided in which information aboutthe incident is received from a first remote sensing unit. A secondremote sensing unit that may have additional information about theincident may then be identified, and information about the incident maybe obtained from this second remote sensing unit. The informationreceived from the first and second remote sensing units is thenanalyzed, and at least one remote entity may be automatically notifiedregarding the occurrence of the incident.

The analysis of the information received from the first and secondremote sensing units may involve a comparison between the received dataand predefined standards. The information about the incident may bereceived, for example, via a transmission made from a cellular deviceassociated with the remote sensing unit that collected the information.The methods may also involve receiving information about an individualassociated with the first remote sensing unit. Moreover, in someembodiments, information about the incident may be received from threeor more different remote sensing units.

In certain embodiments, the second remote sensing unit that may haveadditional data about the incident may be identified by (1) identifyingthe location of the first remote sensing unit (e.g., based on thereceived data) and (2) determining the locations of other remote sensingunits in order to identify another remote sensing unit that was in thevicinity of where the incident occurred. The current locations of theseother remote sensing units may be periodically received as part of thenormal operation of the system.

Prior to receiving information about the incident from the first remotesensing unit, the first remote sensing unit may (1) collect sensed data,(2) perform an initial analysis on the collected sensed data, (3)activate additional sensors based on the initial analysis, (4) collectadditional sensed data, (5) analyze the totality of sensed data that iscollected to determine if an incident has occurred, (6) identify asubset of the collected sensed data that should not be overwrittenand/or (7) identify and then forward to a system hub a subset of thecollected sensed data.

The information about the incident received from the first and/or secondremote sensing units may be received directly from the remote sensingunits or indirectly from, for example, a local aggregator. The localaggregator may perform the identification of a second remote sensingunit that may have additional data about the incident.

Pursuant to further embodiments of the present invention, systems forautomatically responding to an incident are provided which include amain processor, a main storage unit and a communication unit. Thesesystems may also further include other components such as, for example,an operating system, stored standards, etc. The communication unit inthese systems is configured to receive data about the incident from anumber of different remote sensing units. The main processor mayautomatically notify at least one remote entity (e.g., police, fire,etc.) via the communication unit if it is determined that an incidenthas occurred. This may be accomplished, for example, by referencingpre-defined instructions that specify the types of remote entities thatare to be automatically notified for different types of incidents.

Other systems, methods and/or computer program products according toembodiments will be or become apparent to one with skill in the art uponreview of the following drawings and detailed description. It isintended that all such additional systems, methods and/or computerprogram products be included within this description, be within thescope of the present invention, and be protected by the accompanyingclaims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this application, illustrate certain embodiment(s) of theinvention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary incident andelements of a system for identifying such an incident according tocertain embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating operations for collecting andanalyzing data at a remote sensing unit according to certain embodimentsof the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary incident andelements of a system for identifying and responding to such an incidentaccording to further embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating operations for identifying andresponding to an incident according to further embodiments of thepresent invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a system for identifying andresponding to an incident according to still further embodiments of thepresent invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an exemplary remote sensing unit accordingto certain embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an exemplary system hub according tocertain embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating operations for collecting andanalyzing data at a remote sensing unit according to certain embodimentsof the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating operations for responding to anincident according to additional embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the present invention now will be described more fullyhereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in whichexemplary embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may,however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construedas limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, theseembodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough andcomplete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to thoseskilled in the art. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.

It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, etc. maybe used herein to describe various elements, these elements should notbe limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish oneelement from another. For example, a first element could be termed asecond element, and, similarly, a second element could be termed a firstelement, without departing from the scope of the present invention. Asused herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of oneor more of the associated listed items.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. Asused herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”and/or “comprising,” when used herein, specify the presence of statedfeatures, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do notpreclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, steps,operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientificterms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by oneof ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will befurther understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly useddictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that isconsistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art andwill not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unlessexpressly so defined herein.

As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, the present inventionmay be embodied as a method and/or as a system. Moreover, aspects ofembodiments of the present invention may take the form of a computerprogram product on a computer-usable storage medium havingcomputer-usable program code embodied in the medium. Any suitablecomputer readable medium may be utilized including hard disks, volatilememory, non-volatile memory, CD-ROMs, optical storage devices, atransmission media such as those supporting the Internet or an intranet,or magnetic storage devices.

Computer program code for carrying out operations of the presentinvention may be implemented using programmable aspects of existingapplication programs. Aspects of the computer program code may also bewritten in an object oriented programming language such as Java®,Smalltalk or C++ and/or using a conventional procedural programminglanguages, such as the “C” programming language. The program code mayexecute entirely on a single computer or on multiple computers, whichmay or may not be co-located.

The present invention is described below with reference to flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams of methods and systems according toembodiments of the invention. It will be understood that blocks of theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations ofblocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can beimplemented by computer program instructions. These computer programinstructions may be provided to a processor of a general purposecomputer, special purpose computer, or other programmable dataprocessing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions,which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmabledata processing apparatus, create means for implementing thefunctions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in acomputer-readable memory that can direct a computer or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readablememory produce an article of manufacture including instruction meanswhich implement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. The computer program instructions may also beloaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatusto cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computeror other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implementedprocess such that the instructions which execute on the computer orother programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing thefunctions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

Pursuant to embodiments of the present invention, systems and methodsare provided that may be used to identify that an incident has occurred,collect data relating to the incident, and/or coordinate responses tosuch incidents. As noted above, herein, the term “incident” refers to aphysical occurrence and/or a collection of physical occurrences forwhich it may be desirable to collect real-time or near real-time dataand/or which may initiate the need for responsive actions. In somesituations, the methods and systems according to embodiments of thepresent invention may be able to accurately identify a specific type ofincident that has occurred (e.g., an automobile accident, a fall, etc.)and gather data and/or initiate a response that is specifically designedfor the identified type of incident. In other circumstances, the methodsand systems according to embodiments of the present invention may onlybe capable of recognizing that something odd or unusual is occurring(e.g., a sensor has indicated a sudden increase in temperature, butinsufficient data may exist to accurately deduce the underlying causefor the increase in temperature). In these situations, the systems andmethods according to embodiments of the present invention may merely actto collect and/or preserve data relating to the incident, and/or toinitiate a more general response to the incident.

The systems and methods according to embodiments of the presentinvention use a plurality of distributed sensing units, referred toherein as “remote sensing units”, to collect data over a localized orwide geographic area. The remote sensing units may include both fixedand mobile sensing units. For example, in certain embodiments of thepresent invention, numerous individuals could carry personal remotesensing units that were, for example, built into each individual'scellular telephone. Remote sensing units could also be factory and/orafter-market installed into automobiles, mounted in buildings such ashomes, offices and commercial businesses, mounted on light posts andtraffic lights, etc. By providing a broad network of remote sensingunits, it may be possible to routinely collect data from a plurality ofremote sensing units regarding any particular incident, which mayincrease the reliability of the system in correctly identifying whenincidents have in fact occurred and/or to deduce the specific types ofincidents that have occurred.

Each remote sensing unit includes one or more sensors thatintermittently or continuously collect data regarding what is occurringin the vicinity of the remote sensing unit. A few examples of the typesof sensors that may be included on a remote sensing unit include a noisemeter, an audio recorder, an accelerometer, a speedometer, a clock, avideo camera, a global positioning satellite receiver, a thermometer, abreathalyzer, a wind gauge, a seat belt sensor, etc. Typically, most orall of the sensors on each remote sensing unit will sense and recorddata continuously to ensure that the sensors collect data in advance ofand during incidents that occur in the vicinity of the sensor. A userassociated with the remote sensing unit may also be provided acapability to selectively activate and/or deactivate the sensorsincluded in the remote sensing unit.

Some or all of the remote sensing units may include a capability foranalyzing collected sensed data. When an incident occurs in the vicinityof one of the plurality of remote sensing units, the remote sensing unitmay collect data relating to the incident. If analysis of this data(which may be done directly at the remote sensing unit) indicates thatone or more sensors and/or combinations of sensors are “out-of-range”,then realization of this fact may “trigger” the system to initiate aresponse to the incident. Once such a “trigger” event has occurred, theremote sensing unit will typically “tag” sensor data collected aroundthe time of the incident for more permanent storage to ensure that it isnot later overwritten with new data. The remote sensing unit willtypically continue to collect and store sensor data after the system hasbeen triggered to respond to the incident.

The remote sensing units also typically include capabilities forcommunicating with other remote sensing units, with a system hub, and/orwith other elements of the system such as, for example, a localaggregator. Upon determining that out-of-range sensor readings indicatethat an incident has occurred, a remote sensing unit (or other elementof the system that makes such a determination) may identify andcommunicate with additional remote sensing units that are in the generalvicinity of the remote sensing unit that collected the data relating tothe incident. These additional remote sensing units may then becontacted (1) to ensure that they keep data that was collected aroundthe time of the incident and/or (2) to request that they transmit therelevant data to a system element that will perform further analysis ofthe incident based on an aggregation of sensed data collected by aplurality of remote sensing units. An element of the system may alsoinitiate a response to the incident such as dispatching police, fireand/or ambulance units to the location of the incident.

FIG. 1 is a high level schematic diagram that illustrates elements of asystem according to embodiments of the present invention that may beused to identify and respond to an exemplary incident. In the particularexample of FIG. 1, the incident at issue is an automobile accident thatoccurs between a first vehicle 10 and a second vehicle 20. In theexample of FIG. 1, the first vehicle 10 that is involved in theautomobile accident has two passengers (not shown). Each of thesepassengers may be carrying a personal remote sensing unit 12, 14. Thefirst vehicle 10 may also have a remote sensing unit 16 built into thevehicle. The second vehicle 20 has a single passenger (not shown) who iscarrying a remote sensing unit 22. In this example, the second vehicle20 does not include a built in remote sensing unit. When the first andsecond vehicles 10, 20 collide, each of the remote sensing units 12, 14,16 and 22 collect sensor data that may provide information about thecrash. This sensor data is depicted in FIG. 1 as a first data set 18that reflects the combined data collected by remote sensing units 12,14, 16 that are contained within the first vehicle 10, and a second dataset 24 that contains the data collected by remote sensing unit 22.

As is also shown in FIG. 1, additional remote sensing units may be inthe general vicinity when the automobile accident involving the firstvehicle 10 and the second vehicle 20 occurs. For example, anothervehicle 30 that contains an embedded remote sensing unit 32 may betraveling the same stretch of road at the time of the accident, and theremote sensing unit 32 may be in a position to collect data relating tothe accident. In many situations, a vehicle such as the third vehicle 30will not stop in response to the accident, because, for example, thepassengers in the vehicle do not realize that an accident has occurred,do not want to get involved, are not particularly close to the accident,have other pressing commitments or are traveling away from the accidentat the time that the accident occurs. However, the third vehicle 30 mayhave collected data about the accident (third data set 34) which may beuseful in determining if an incident has occurred and, if so, the typeof incident, and/or which may be useful in later analyzing orinvestigating the incident. As is also shown in FIG. 1, in addition toother vehicles, there may be pedestrians such as pedestrian 40 that arein the vicinity at the time the automobile accident occurs. Pedestrian40 may also be carrying a remote sensing unit 42 that may have collectedadditional data (fourth data set 44) about the accident. Other fixed ormobile remote sensing units, such as remote sensing unit 52 which ismounted on a highway light pole, may also be in the general vicinity ofthe accident and may collect data that relates to the accident such asfifth data set 54.

It will be appreciated that the types of sensors carried by each remotesensing unit 12, 14, 16, 22, 32, 42, 52, and hence the collected sensordata contained in the data sets 18, 24, 34, 44, 54, may be quite varied.For example, the first data set 18 and/or the second data set 24 mayinclude accelerometer data, speedometer data, audio data, braking data,global positioning satellite location data, temperature data, raindetector information, information regarding the number of passengers,seat belt status information, breathalyzer information, trajectoryinformation, etc. Some of this collected data may be indicative of anautomobile accident (i.e., a sudden deceleration, the stopping of thevehicle, the vehicle decelerating more quickly than anticipated based onthe braking data, audio recordings of the sound of the vehiclescolliding, etc.). The data collected by the “bystander” remote sensingunits 32, 42, 52 on the other hand, will likely not includeaccelerometer or speedometer data that is indicative of an automobileaccident (as remote sensing units 32, 42, 52 were not directly involvedin the accident), but may contain similar data (e.g., audio recordings)and/or additional data (e.g., video recordings of the accident, smokedetector readings, glass break sensor readings, etc.) that may suggestthat an incident has occurred and/or may help to identify the type ofincident that has occurred. It will also be appreciated that the remotesensing units 32, 42, 52 may collect such data regarding the incidentfrom different positions and/or perspectives. For example, the bystander40 may be located several stories up in a building overlooking theintersection where the automobile accident occurred. Such a perspectivemay provide additional data about the incident (e.g., a video recordingfrom a better camera angle for determining who was at fault in theaccident) that might not be available without the collaborative datacollection and analyses capabilities according to embodiments of thepresent invention.

The systems and methods according to embodiments of the presentinvention may allow for collaboration between some or all of the remotesensing units 12, 14, 16, 22, 32, 42, 52 in order to collect and savedata relating to the incident (here an automobile accident) and/or tocoordinate a response to the incident. In particular, as shown in FIG.1, a remote sensing unit such as remote sensing unit 16 may initiatecommunication with some or all of the other remote sensing units in thegeneral vicinity (e.g., remote sensing units 12, 14, 22, 32, 42) using,for example, a direct communication link, a paging channel, etc. As partof these communications, remote sensing unit 16 may, for example, directeach of the other remote sensing units 12, 14, 22, 32, 42 to (1) provideidentification information, (2) more permanently store any sensed datathat each of these remote sensing units may have collected about theaccident and/or (3) to forward sensed data collected about the incidentto remote sensing unit 16 and/or to some other element in the system(such as system hub 60).

In the above manner, the collaborative systems and methods according toembodiments of the present invention may be able to significantlyincrease the amount of data that is collected regarding a wide varietyof incidents by widely deploying a large number of remote sensing unitsand then providing mechanisms for these remote sensing units to saveand/or share data. Moreover, as the amount of data regarding an incidentthat is collected increases, the system may gain the ability to morespecifically identify the type of incident that occurred, and coordinateappropriate responses to the incident in light of this determination.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart that illustrates methods according to certainembodiments of the present invention for detecting that an incident hasoccurred and for then responding to the incident. The method of FIG. 2may be carried out at one or more remote sensing units, at a system hub,at a local aggregator, at other elements of the system, or at acombination thereof. As shown in FIG. 2, operations may begin at block200 with the collection of sensed data by one or more sensors of atleast one remote sensing unit such as, for example, remote sensing unit16 in FIG. 1. The collected sensed data is then temporarily stored inmemory or another storage media (block 205). The storage media may ormay not be located in the same physical location as the remote sensingunit. Block 205 indicates that the storage is “temporary” because, inmany cases, memory constraints or other limitations in available storagemay exist such that a remote sensing unit may not permanently store allof the data it collects. As such, data collected by the remote sensingunit may only be stored for a relatively short period of time, and willthereafter be overwritten with new sensed data. The collected sensordata may, in embodiments of the present invention, be stored in astandard data language such as XML.

As also shown in FIG. 2, the collected sensed data is analyzed at block210. As discussed in more detail herein, the operation of block 210 mayinvolve the analysis of data collected by a single remote sensing unit,or data collected by a plurality of remote sensing units. Based on theanalysis of block 210, a determination is made at block 215 as towhether or not an incident has occurred. As discussed in more detailherein, this determination may involve, for example, comparing thecollected data to pre-defined standards to determine whether any of thecollected data, or combinations of collected data, fall outside expectedranges or values. If the collected data falls within the expectedranges, then the system simply continues to collect, temporarily storeand analyze data as shown in blocks 200, 205, 210 of FIG. 1 If, on theother hand, at block 215 the collected data falls outside the expectedranges, it is assumed that an incident has occurred, which triggers thesystem to respond to the incident in one or more ways as indicated atblock 220 of FIG. 2.

It will be appreciated that the “response” to the incident depicted atblock 220 of FIG. 2 may involve a variety of different actions. Forexample, one response that may be initiated at block 220 is for one ormore elements of the system (e.g., a remote sensing unit or a systemhub, if provided) to identify other remote sensing units that may havecollected data regarding the incident. As will be discussed in moredetail herein, this may be accomplished in a variety of different ways,and can even effectively be accomplished prior to occurrence of anincident by having the remote sensing units periodically or continuouslyidentify nearby remote sensing units. Once such remote sensing unitshave been identified, the system (e.g., a remote sensing unit or asystem hub) may request, for example, that the identified remote sensingunits more permanently store the sensed data that was collected duringthe time period when the incident occurred, and perhaps the time periodsimmediately prior and/or subsequent to the incident. The remote sensingunits may accomplish this, for example, by storing the relevant data toa separate storage media and/or by otherwise designating the segments ofthe storage media that contain the relevant data so that the data is notoverwritten, or so as not to be overwritten prior to the time at which acopy or the sensed data is forwarded elsewhere. Such a step may helpensure that the data is available at a later date so that it may beconsidered in any later investigation or analysis of the incident

In some embodiments of the present invention, the response at block 220of FIG. 2 may further include requesting that the remote sensing unitsthat are identified as potentially having data regarding the incidenttransmit this data to another remote sensing unit, to a system hub,and/or to some other element of the system. This data may then be used,for example, in part of a second analysis similar to the analysis ofblock 210 that is used to make a final determination as to whether anincident has occurred and/or as a means of attempting to morespecifically identify the type of incident that has occurred. In somesituations, the response may further include activating additionalsensors on one or more remote sensing units, and/or modifying thecurrent settings on various sensors (e.g., redirecting a video camera topoint in the direction where an incident is believed to have happened).

Finally, as discussed in further detail herein, the response to theincident at block 220 may also involve contacting an individualassociated with one of the remote sensing units that collected dataregarding the incident and/or notifying one or more remote entities orresources regarding the incident.

FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate an embodiment of the present invention in whichthe analysis of the collected sensed data and the response to theidentification of an incident is carried out at a remote sensing unit.FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating several remote sensing unitsthat are in the vicinity of an automobile accident (i.e., an exemplaryincident). FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating operations that may beperformed at, for example, the remote sensing unit 316 of FIG. 3 toidentify that the automobile accident has occurred and to coordinate anappropriate response thereto.

As shown in FIG. 3, an automobile accident occurs between a firstvehicle 310 and a second vehicle 320. The first vehicle 310 involved inthe automobile accident has two passengers (not shown), each of whom iscarrying a personal remote sensing unit 312, 314, and the first vehicle310 also has a built-in remote sensing unit 316. The second vehicle 320has a single passenger (not shown) who is carrying a remote sensing unit322. A third vehicle 330 that contains an embedded remote sensing unit332 is also in the vicinity at the time of the accident, and a fixedremote sensing unit 352 is also located nearby. When the first vehicle310 collides with the second vehicle 320, each of the remote sensingunits 312, 314, 316, 322, 332, 352 may collect sensor data that providesinformation about the collision. This collected sensor data is depictedin FIG. 3 as data sets 318, 324, 334, 354. The flow chart of FIG. 4depicts an exemplary set of operations that show how the remote sensingunit 316 may identify that the automobile accident occurred in onespecific embodiment of the present invention, and respond to theaccident by contacting for example, a fire department 370, a hospital372, a police department 374, an emergency contact 376 and/or a towingservice 378.

As shown in FIG. 4, operations begin at block 400 with the remotesensing unit 316 collecting sensed data using its sensors. The datacollected from the sensors is stored in some fashion at block 405. Asnoted above, due to memory constraints, the collected sensed data may beperiodically overwritten to reduce the memory or other storagerequirements of the remote sensing unit. As shown at blocks 410 and 415,the remote sensing unit may also either periodically or continuouslyanalyze the collected sensed data to determine if an incident hasoccurred. Exemplary ways of making such a determination are discussed inmore detail herein. If no incident is deemed to have occurred,operations return from block 415 to block 400. If an incident is deemedto have occurred, then the remote sensing unit continues to collect andstore additional sensed data (block 420). In addition, the remotesensing unit may optionally activate additional sensors, such as sensorsthat are normally in standby mode due to power consumption constraints,cost concerns, memory storage limitations, wear concerns, etc. (block425).

As shown at block 430 of FIG. 4, the remote sensing unit may alsoproceed to identify additional remote sensing units (RSUs) that may havecollected data about the incident (and/or which could be activated tostart collecting data about the incident). This may be accomplished in avariety of ways. For example, in some embodiments of the presentinvention, the remote sensing units may have a low power communicationsystem which they can use to communicate via, for example, a pagingchannel, with other remote sensing units in the general vicinity (e.g.,within a mile). A remote sensing unit that determines that an incidenthas occurred may use such a paging channel to page all other remotesensing units in the general vicinity. The remote sensing unit may thenassume that any remote sensing units that respond to the page may havedata regarding the incident, or may collect data (e.g., globalpositioning satellite data) from the responding remote sensing units tomake a determination as to whether the responding remote sensing unitshave data regarding the incident.

In other embodiments, a remote sensing unit may use mesh networkingtechniques at block 430 of FIG. 4 to identify additional remote sensingunits (RSUs) that may have collected data about the incident. Pursuantto these mesh networking techniques, the remote sensing unit might, forexample, contact other nearby remote sensing units who, in turn, wouldcontact other nearby remote sensing units on an ad hoc basis in order toidentify all of the remote sensing units that were in the generalvicinity of the incident. GPS data could be included in the messagesforwarded between remote sensing units to ensure that only remotesensing units in the general vicinity of the incident are contacted. Instill other embodiments, a page could be sent to every remote sensingunit and responsive information provided by the remote sensing units(e.g., location data) could be used to identify which other remotesensing units are likely to have collected data regarding the incident.In still other embodiments, every remote sensing unit could continuouslyor periodically broadcast its identification (e.g., via an ultrawidebandsystem) and perhaps other information, such as its location, which couldthen be used by a remote sensing unit to identify the other remotesensing units in the vicinity of the incident. In still furtherembodiments, at block 430 of FIG. 4 the remote sensing unit might sensecommunications networks that are operating in the area and send out apage or messages on each different type of network as means ofcontacting and identifying other remote sensing units in the generalvicinity. In other embodiments, a system hub (or other system element)could track the location of some or all of the remote sensing units, andthe identification step at block 430 could simply comprise requestingthe identification from such a system hub. Various other methods ofidentifying remote sensing units having data regarding the incident maybe implemented.

Once the additional remote sensing units that may have such data areidentified, the identified remote sensing units may be asked to “tag”the data for more permanent storage (block 435). In this way, the systemcan ensure that relevant sensed data is not overwritten so that it isavailable for use in later investigations and/or analyses of theincident.

One of the remote sensing units (e.g., the remote sensing unit thatidentified that an incident occurred) may then proceed to collect datafrom each of the other identified remote sensing units. Once thisadditional data is collected, as shown at block 440 of FIG. 4, theremote sensing unit may perform a second analysis (block 445), this timeon the more complete data set that includes data from additional remotesensing units and perhaps additional data collected subsequent to theidentification of the incident at block 415. Based on this analysis, theremote sensing unit may determine whether a response is necessary to theidentified incident (block 450). While this determination may be madeearlier in other embodiments of the present invention, by waiting untila more complete data set has been collected and analyzed, it may bepossible to more accurately identify the type of incident that hasoccurred and therefore enact a response that is appropriate for thespecifically identified incident. At block 455, the remote sensing unitcoordinates such a response, if necessary.

The responsive measures that are enacted at block 455 in response todetermining that an incident has occurred may be preprogrammedresponses. The particular response selected may be based on, forexample, the analysis of the sensed data performed at block 445 (oralternatively based on the analysis performed at block 410) of FIG. 4.Referring again to our automobile accident example of FIG. 3, theanalysis of the sensed data by remote sensing unit 316 may indicate witha high degree of probability that the first vehicle 310 was involved insome sort of collision. Upon making this determination, the remotesensing unit 310 could be programmed to automatically notify the localfire department 370, the nearest hospital 372 (or emergency responseunit) to the site of the collision, and/or the closest police substation374. The remote sensing unit could also provide these public authoritieswith information such as the time and location of the accident, videoclips (if any) of the accident, etc. In other embodiments, the remotesensing unit 310 could alternatively be programmed to send the incidentdata to an individual who would then analyze the data and make adecision as to whether or not to notify various third parties such as afire department 370, a hospital 372 and/or the police 374. In someembodiments of the present invention, the response can be much broader,and include, for example, notifying media outlets of the accident (forpurposes of traffic reporting), notification of insurance companies ofindividuals that appear to have been involved in the accident,contacting emergency contacts of individuals involved in the accident,contacting towing services such as towing service 378 in FIG. 3, etc.

In still further embodiments of the present invention, the remotesensing unit may initiate a series of “internal” responses based on thedetermination that a certain type of incident has occurred. For example,the remote sensing unit 316 installed in automobile 310 could, forexample, automatically unlock doors, open windows or even stop theengine on automobile 310 upon determining based on the sensed data thatan automobile accident has occurred.

While the above example discussed with respect to FIGS. 3 and 4 focuseson an incident which is identified by a remote sensing unit that isinvolved in the incident (i.e., the remote sensing unit 316 that is inone of the cars involved in the accident), it will be appreciated thatthe remote sensing unit that identifies the incident may also be an“observer” remote sensing unit that is not involved in the incident(e.g., remote sensing unit 332). An “observer” remote sensing unit mayend up being the remote sensing unit that identifies an incident for avariety of reasons. For example, in some cases, no remote sensing unitsmay be involved in the incident (i.e., two cars may collide that do notinclude remote sensing units). In other cases, the incident may impairor destroy the ability of any remote sensing units involved in theincident to determine that an incident has occurred or to send out thenecessary communications. In still other cases, the “observer” remotesensing unit may collect better data than a remote sensing unit involvedin the incident. In other cases, both a remote sensing unit involved inan incident and an “observer” remote sensing unit may correctly identifythat an incident has occurred, but the “observer” remote sensing unitmay do so first. In any event, the point is that embodiments of thepresent invention may allow any remote sensing unit to identify that anincident has occurred and therefore coordinate a response thereto(whether that response is done by the remote sensing unit, a system hub,or some other system element), regardless of whether or not the remotesensing unit was actually involved in the incident.

According to further embodiments of the present invention, a system hubsuch as system hub 60 illustrated in FIG. 1 may be provided that mayfacilitate coordinating operations between a plurality of remote sensingunits and/or in coordinating an appropriate response to an identifiedincident. In such embodiments, one or more remote sensing units may makean initial determination that an incident has occurred. Upon making thisdetermination, the system hub is alerted and/or data regarding theincident (“incident data”) is forwarded to the system hub. This incidentdata may comprise, for example, collected sensor data, data based on ananalysis of collected sensor data or a combination thereof. Upon receiptof an incident alert and/or incident data, the system hub may collectadditional data from other remote sensing units that may have collectedsensed data relating to the incident. This may be accomplished, forexample, by the system hub identifying additional remote sensing unitsthat are in the immediate vicinity of the remote sensing unit thatprovided the incident alert, and then requesting that each such remotesensing unit forward incident data to the system hub. The system hub maythen aggregate all of the collected incident data and analyze thisaggregated data to determine an appropriate response to the incident.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system 500 accordingto embodiments of the present invention that includes a plurality ofsystem hubs 510, 515. It will be appreciated that, in other embodiments,a single system hub or a larger number of system hubs may be provided.As shown in FIG. 5, the system 500 also includes a plurality of remotesensing units 520, 522, 524, 526, 528 and a local aggregator 550. Thesystem 500 may interface with a plurality of remote entities orresources such as, for example, police departments 530, fire departments532, state or local departments of transportation 534, emergencyresponse or other medical services 536, insurance carriers 538,hospitals 540, media outlets (e.g., television and radio stations) 542,emergency contacts 544 and/or towing services 546. The remote entitiesillustrated in FIG. 5 are exemplary in nature, and it will beappreciated that additional and/or different remote entities/resourcesmay interface with the system 500.

Each of the remote sensing units 520, 522, 524, 526, 528 may be in atleast intermittent communication with at least one of the system hubs510, 515. Each of the remote sensing units 520, 522, 524, 526, 528collects data via a plurality of sensors. At least some of thiscollected data is then transmitted to one or more of the system hubs510, 515.

As shown in FIG. 5, in certain embodiments, one or more localaggregators 550 may be provided. In some embodiments, the localaggregator 550 may be a remote sensing unit that aggregates sensed datacollected from additional remote sensing units. By way of example,several individuals may be riding in an automobile, and each of theseindividual may carry a remote sensing unit. The automobile may also havea remote sensing unit. In many cases, the remote sensing unit carried bythe automobile may be a more sophisticated device that includes moreand/or better sensors than the mobile remote sensing units that arecarried by individuals. In this situation, the remote sensing unit inthe car may act as a local aggregator 550 that takes data collected byits own sensors and also communicates with nearby remote sensing unitsto collect additional data. The local aggregator may then make adetermination as to whether an incident has occurred based on theaggregated incident data collected by multiple remote sensing units. Theremote sensing unit in the automobile may automatically communicate withpre-identified remote sensing units (i.e., the remote sensing unitsowned by members of the family who own the automobile) or,alternatively, the remote sensing unit in the automobile may identifyand communicate with any remote sensing units that happen to be in thearea at the time that the incident occurs. An example of such a localaggregator is remote sensing unit 316 in FIG. 3, which collects andaggregate into a single data set 318 the sensed data from remote sensingunits 312, 314 and 316 (remote sensing unit 16 of FIG. 1 may also act asa local aggregator in a similar fashion).

In other embodiments, the local aggregator 550 may comprise a standalone unit that does not have sensing capabilities that collects andaggregates sensed data from a plurality of remote sensing units (inwhich case the local aggregator may appear to simply be a remoteextension of the system hub 515). In any event, as shown in FIG. 5, thelocal aggregator 550 communicates directly with a plurality of remotesensing units 522, 524 that are, for example, in the general geographicarea of the local aggregator 550. In the embodiment of FIG. 5, the localaggregator 550 communicates with the system hub 515, and may eithersimply forward the information communicated from the remote sensingunits 522, 524, or may analyze the information communicated from theremote sensing units 522, 524 and then forward conclusions, summary dataor other information to the system hub 515.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram that illustrates an exemplary embodiment of aremote sensing unit 600 according to certain embodiments of the presentinvention. Any one of, or all of, the remote sensing units illustratedin FIGS. 1, 3 and/or 5 could be implemented using the remote sensingunit 600 of FIG. 6. As shown in FIG. 6, the remote sensing unit 600 mayinclude a communications unit 610, a storage unit 620, a processor 630,stored standards 640, a sensor bank 650, a clock 660 and stored personaland/or environmental information 670.

The communications unit 610 may be used to transmit and receiveinformation between the remote sensing unit 600 and other remote sensingunits as in the embodiments of FIGS. 1 and 3, and/or to transmit andreceive information between the remote sensing unit 600 and a localaggregator and/or one or more system hubs (such as the local aggregator550 or system hub 515 in FIG. 5). The communications unit 610 maycomprise, for example, a cellular telephone, an internet protocol orother packet switched wireless communications device, a Bluetooth orWiMax connection, a landline telephone, a wired internet connection, acombination thereof, or any of a wide variety of other communicationssystems. In some embodiments, each remote sensing unit can directlycommunicate with all of the other elements of the system (e.g., otherremote sensing units, local aggregators and system hubs). In otherembodiments, some remote sensing units may only have indirectcommunications ability. By way of example, a remote sensing unit mountedin an automobile might include a communication unit 610 that isimplemented as a Bluetooth transceiver. This Bluetooth transceiver couldthen interface with other remote sensing units and/or a system hub via aBluetooth connection to a cellular telephone of one of the occupants ofthe automobile, and a cellular connection from that cellular telephoneto the system hub.

It will also be appreciated that the communications unit 610 may encryptdata prior to transmission in order to protect the integrity of thesystem. Likewise, communications units provided with other systemelements such as system hubs and/or local aggregators may likewiseencrypt data prior to transmission. Each device may also haveauthentication functionality so that other elements of the system canconfirm that they are receiving communications from valid users of thesystem

As is also shown in FIG. 6, the remote sensing unit also includes astorage unit 620. Storage unit 620 will typically be implemented as someform of computer storage medium such as, for example, volatile ornon-volatile memory, hard disks, CD-ROMs, optical storage devices ormagnetic storage devices. The storage unit 620 may be used to, amongother things, store data collected by the sensors included in the sensorbank 650, which data is referred to herein as “sensed”, “sensor” and/or“collected” data.

The remote sensing unit 600 may further include “stored standards” 640.Herein, the term “stored standards” is used to refer to benchmarks whichmay be compared to sensed data collected by the sensors in sensor bank650 to make determinations such as, for example, a determination as towhether or not an incident has occurred. The stored standards may, forexample, be expressed as values or ranges of values for the datacollected by one or more sensors that are considered to indicate that anincident has occurred. The standards may include certain values orranges of values when all the sensors are from a single remote sensingunit, and different values or ranges of values when sensors from two ormore remote sensing units are considered. The stored standards may alsotake into account other information, such as the locations of the remotesensing units from which sensed data has been collected, or other storedinformation such as maps. The stored standards 640 may be maintained,for example, in a portion of the storage unit 620. Alternatively, thestored standards 640 may be maintained in a separate storage unit suchas, for example, a read only memory or random access memory. The storedstandards 640 might also be implemented as firmware.

The clock 660 that is provided in the remote sensing unit 600 may beused to “time-stamp” an incident (i.e., to identify a specific time orperiod of time when sensed data was collected that indicates that anincident has occurred). Such time-stamping of an incident may facilitatecollecting sensed data from additional remote sensing units regardingthe incident. The clocks on all the remote sensing units may besynchronized via the network to ensure accurate time-stamping of anincident and to ensure that the data collected by various remote sensingunits about an incident can be combined using a common temporalreference.

The remote sensing unit may also include stored personal and/orenvironmental data 670. This information may be stored, for example, ina portion of the storage unit 620 or in a separate storage (i.e., in aSIM card on a cellular telephone). Storage of personal information willtypically be done when a remote sensing unit is associated with a singleindividual or with a small group of individuals (e.g., a family), whichwill often be the case when the remote sensing unit 600 is carried by anindividual or installed in an automobile or personal residence. Thepersonal information may include a wide variety of information that maybe required by the system for various responses to certain types ofincidents. Such information could include, for example, names,addresses, social security numbers, medical records, known allergies,health and auto insurance policy and carrier information, emergencycontact information and the like. When the remote sensing unit 600determines that an incident has occurred, it may forward selected of thepersonal information to another remote sensing unit, a local aggregatorand/or a system hub for use in the response to the incident.

The remote sensing unit 600 also includes a sensor bank 650. The sensorbank 650 includes one or more sensors that collect data regarding thesurrounding environment. The block diagram of FIG. 6 illustratesexemplary sensors that may be included in the sensor bank 650 such as anaccelerometer 652, a global positioning satellite receiver 654, aspeedometer 656, a smoke detector 658, a thermometer 660, a video camera662, and an audio recorder 664. It will be appreciated, however, thatselected ones of a wide variety of known or later developed sensorscould be included in the sensor bank 650 (e.g., a heart rate monitor, aninternal thermometer, a motion detector, a glass break sensor, etc.). Itwill also be appreciated that the sensor bank 650 in different remotesensing units may include any number and/or any combination of sensors.For example, sensor banks included in automobiles may use sensors thatare already standard equipment in the automobile such as, for example, aspeedometer, seat belt sensors, rain sensors (i.e., whether or not thewindshield wipers are operating), a pulse and/or internal temperaturemonitor (e.g., on the steering wheel of a car), etc. The number andtypes of sensors included within a particular sensor bank 650 may beselected, for example, based on cost considerations, weight and sizeconstraints, the location where the remote sensing unit 600 will bedeployed, whether or not the remote sensing unit 600 is a fixed ormobile unit, etc.

As shown in FIG. 6, the sensors in the sensor bank 650 collect dataregarding the surrounding environment. The sensor unit feeds this senseddata to the storage unit 620 by, for example, a direct connection or viathe processor 630. The storage unit 620 stores the sensed data at leasttemporarily. A user may also be provided with a capability to manuallyactivate and/or deactivate some or all of the sensors in the sensorbank.

The remote sensing unit 600 further includes a processor 630. Theprocessor 630 may be any type of computational or comparative devicethat may be used to periodically compare sensed data stored in thestorage unit 620 to the stored standards 640 to determine if it islikely that an incident has occurred. As noted above, the storedstandards 640 may comprise elaborate formulas or algorithms that may becompared to the sensed data collected by various sensors to make adetermination as to whether or not an incident has occurred. By way ofexample, stored standards may be provided that are designed to identifywhen an automobile accident occurs. The sensor bank 650 in a particularremote sensing unit 600 may include, among other things, anaccelerometer 652, a GPS positioning receiver 654, an audio recorder 664and a glass break sensor. If this remote sensing unit 600 is carried byan individual that is involved in an automobile accident, it is likelythat in a very short period of time (i.e., a matter of a few seconds),the accelerometer 652 will record a rapid deceleration, the audiorecorder 664 will record a short, sudden crunching noise and the glassbreak sensor may record high frequency sounds associated with breakingautomobile safety glass. In addition, the GPS receiver 654 will recordthe position of the remote sensing unit 600 at the time the above datais sensed and collected, which can then be compared to stored databasesto determine if the position is on or adjacent to a street, road orhighway.

The stored standards may also include many different combinations ofthresholds and/or ranges for the sensed data recorded by various of thesensors within a given period of time which, if met or exceeded, mayindicate that an automobile accident has occurred. By way of example, avery sudden deceleration (i.e., a deceleration that occurs more quicklythan is possible using high performance automobile brakes) may, byitself, be sufficient to indicate that an automobile accident hasoccurred. Likewise, a lesser deceleration coupled with glass breakingsounds or a certain level of correlation on the audio recorder to astored recording of a typical automobile accident may also be sufficientto indicate that an automobile accident has occurred. Very elaboratestandards setting forth combinations of sensor data that indicate anincident has occurred may be developed in order to make determinationsas to whether or not an incident has occurred with relatively highaccuracy.

It will be appreciated that sophisticated stored standards may benecessary to accurately identify certain types of incidents. Forexample, if a driver runs over a curb or has a flat tire, certain of thesensors may reflect readings that may be similar to the readingsassociated with certain types of car accidents. As such, the algorithmsthat are used to determine whether or not an incident has occurred,and/or the algorithms that determine the type of response (if any) thatis initiated, may be quite complicated. Increasing the number and/ortypes of sensors may facilitate increasing the accuracy of thesealgorithms, but as these numbers increase the complexity of thealgorithms may likewise increase.

In certain embodiments of the present invention, the algorithms (storedstandards) that are used to determine whether or not an incident hasoccurred can include a component that provides a degree of certaintythat an incident has occurred (e.g., 1 sigma from mean) and/or aprobability that an incident has occurred (e.g., an 80% probability).Thus, while the system component that analyzes the sensed data may makea “determination” that an incident has occurred if a certain thresholdis passed, by providing degree of certainty and/or probability data itis possible for the system to provide an indication as to the risk thatan incorrect determination may have been made. In some embodiment, suchdegree of certainty or probability may be forwarded to remote thirdparties such as police, fire departments etc. so that they may take thisinformation into consideration in determining whether and how to respondto the incident. An additional advantage to using such algorithms isthat the numerical estimation allows for historical tracking of howsuccessful the system is at identifying actual incidents. Thishistorical tracking may then be used to tweak the algorithms to improvethe accuracy of the system.

While the above automobile accident provides one example of a type ofincident that can automatically be identified by the systems and methodsaccording to embodiments of the present invention, it will beappreciated that the present invention is not limited to identifyingautomobile accidents, but instead may be used to sense and identify awide variety of additional and/or different incidents. For example,elderly or otherwise less stable individuals could carry remote sensingunits 600 that were programmed to sense and identify instances in whichthey fall down. Other exemplary incidents include fires in homes,offices or automobiles, gunshot detection, plane or boat crashes,fearful screaming, suspicious behavior, muggings, bombings, war, runningout of gas, etc. Thus, it will be understood that this invention may beused to identify and respond to any of a variety of different incidents,and is not limited to certain specific incidents and/or combinationsthereof.

The systems and methods according to embodiments of the presentinvention may also be used to identify an “incident” which is simplythat something unusual or unexpected has occurred. In particular, sensordata may be collected that reflects an unusual or unexpected readings onone sensor and/or on a combination of sensors. These “out-of-range”readings may reflect that something unusual is happening and, in thesecircumstances, it may be useful to ensure that the collected sensed datathat exhibits these readings is permanently stored. In many cases, theonly response to detection of such readings may be to ensure that senseddata is saved, and perhaps to collaborate with other remote sensingunits in the vicinity to see if the aggregated data suggests that somespecific type of incident has occurred. In other embodiments, aadditional generalized response might also be initiated upon receivingthese “out-of-range” readings (even though there is not enough data forthe system to deduce the underlying cause of the out-of-range readings)such as, for example, a telephone call to a person associated with theremote sensing unit and/or having a police officer in the vicinity visitthe location where the readings were recorded.

FIG. 6 also illustrates one possible implementation of the physicaland/or logical connections between the sub-systems of the exemplaryremote sensing unit 600. As shown in FIG. 6, the sensor bank 650 sensesdata and provides the sensed data to the storage unit 620 and/or to theprocessor 630. The processor may receive information stored in thestorage unit 620, the stored standards 640 and/or the storedpersonal/environmental information block 670, and may also write data tothe storage unit 620. The processor 660 receives the output of the clock660 (which often is simply part of the processor 630. The processorcontrols communications between the remote sensing unit 600 and externaldevices such as a system hub, and uses the communication unit 610 totransmit and receive such communications.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram that illustrates in more detail a system hub700 according to certain embodiments of the present invention. One orboth of the system hubs 510, 515 in FIG. 5 could be implemented as thesystem hub 700 of FIG. 5. As shown in FIG. 7, the system hub 700includes a main processor 710, a memory unit 720, a communications unit730 and stored standards 740. It will also be appreciated that thesystem hub 700 may include various other components such as an operatingsystem. The communications unit 730 receives incident alerts and/orincident data from one or more remote sensing units. In response toreceiving such alerts and/or incident data from a first remote sensingunit, the system hub 700 may make a determination as to whether thereare any additional remote sensing units that were in the vicinity of thefirst remote sensing unit at the time that a potential incidentoccurred. If so, the system hub 700 may send a request to theseadditional remote sensing units for any incident data that they havefrom the time of the potential incident. These additional remote sensingunits forward the incident data for the appropriate time period to thesystem hub 700, where it may be placed into semi-permanent or permanentstorage in memory unit 720.

The system hub 700 may also request that remote sensing units in thevicinity of an incident activate additional sensors or to change thesettings on sensors. By way of example, the system hub 700 may determinethat a highway camera (i.e., one specific type of remote sensing unit)is in the vicinity of a remote sensing unit that collected dataregistering an incident. The system hub 700 could send a requestdirecting the highway camera to rotate to view a section of the highwaywhere the incident appears to have occurred. The incident data capturedby this highway camera could then be included in an analysis that makesa final determination as to whether or not an incident occurred and/orin an analysis that selects the response that is initiated.

As discussed above, in certain embodiments of the present invention, afirst remote sensing unit may make an initial determination as towhether or not an incident has occurred. In such embodiments, the systemhub 700 may thereafter make a second determination based on not only theincident data received from the first remote sensing unit, but alsobased upon incident data received from additional remote sensing unitsthat was provided in response to a request from the system hub 700. Bycollecting incident data from a plurality of remote sensing units thatwere in the vicinity of the incident at the appropriate time, it may bepossible to increase the accuracy of the system in correctly identifyingthe specific type of incident that has occurred.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart that illustrates methods according to certainembodiments of the present invention for a remote sensing unit such asremote sensing unit 600 to identify and respond to an incident. As shownin FIG. 8, operations may begin at block 800 with the collection ofsensed data by one or more of the sensors of a first remote sensingunit. As shown at block 805 and discussed in detail above, the firstremote sensing unit may analyze the sensed data by comparing it tostored standards. Based on this analysis/comparison, a determination maybe made as to whether or not an incident has occurred (block 810). Ifnot, operations return to block 800 and the remote sensing unitcontinues to collect and periodically analyze the sensed data.

If, on the other hand, it is determined at block 810 that an incidenthas occurred, then operations proceed to block 815 of FIG. 8, where theremote sensing unit may more “tag” or otherwise identify the datacollected around the time of the incident for more permanent storage.The remote sensing unit may include instructions that specify the amountand/or range of data that is tagged for more permanent storage inresponse to identification at block 810 of a potential incident. By wayof example, if it is determined at block 810 that an incident occurredat a certain time, data collected from each sensor from a first time(e.g., 10 minutes) prior to the time of the incident up to a second time(e.g., five minutes) after the incident may be tagged for more permanentstorage. These amount of data so tagged may vary by sensor, by type ofincident, etc.

As shown in block 820 of FIG. 8, at some point information regarding theincident is communicated from the remote sensing unit to a localaggregator and/or to a system hub. The information that is communicatedmay include, for example, (1) an alert that an incident occurred, (2)incident data which may include raw and/or processed sensed data thatrelates to the incident, (3) an identification of the time period whenthe incident occurred and/or (4) an identification of the type ofincident. In addition, as shown at block 825, the remote sensing unitmay also select and transmit appropriate personal and/or environmentalinformation to the system hub that may be used in coordinating theresponse to the incident. For example, if the incident is an automobileaccident, emergency contact information, medical records and insuranceinformation might be transmitted by the remote sensing unit to thesystem hub. The system hub then might provide the medical records to anemergency response unit and/or hospital, might place a telephone call tothe emergency contact, and/or might notify the identified insurancecompany of the potential accident. It will be appreciated that theoperations illustrated in FIG. 8 need not be carried out serially, andneed not be performed in the specific order illustrated.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart that illustrates methods according to certainembodiments of the present invention for a system hub such as system hub700 of FIG. 7 to respond to an incident. As shown in FIG. 9, operationsmay begin at block 900, where the system hub receives an incident alertfrom a remote sensing unit. At block 905, the system hub receivesincident data from the remote sensing unit, which may comprise, amongother things, the raw sensed data, processed sensed data and/or otherinformation. It will also be appreciated that the operations of blocks900 and 905 may be carried out as a single operation, and that thereceipt of incident data may comprise receipt of an incident alert. Onereason for performing the operations of blocks 900 and 905 of FIG. 9 astwo separate steps is it may be advantageous to notify the system hub assoon as it is determined that an incident has occurred, so thatinformation from other remote sensing units may be gathered. Thus, analert may be sent immediately at block 900 even though the incident inquestion may still be ongoing (such that the remote sensing unit isstill collecting sensed data relating to the incident).

The system hub then at block 910 aggregates the incident data collectedat block 905 with incident data from a plurality of additional remotesensing units. To accomplish this, the system hub at block 910identifies the additional remote sensing units, if any, that are in thevicinity of the incident. In some embodiments of the present invention,the system hub then sends a request to the identified remote sensingunits for sensed data that has been collected around the timeframe ofthe incident. In other embodiments, such information may automaticallyhave been provided to the system hub, rendering such requests forinformation unnecessary.

Once the data from the additional remote sensing units has beencollected, the totality of the data that potentially relates to theincident may be analyzed in an effort to determine the type of incidentthat has occurred (block 915). Then at block 920, appropriatepreprogrammed responses to the incident may be initiated based on thedetermined type of incident, as is discussed above with respect to otherembodiments of the present invention.

Those of skill in the art will appreciate that numerous modificationsmay be made to the exemplary embodiments discussed with reference to thefigures above without departing from the scope of the present invention.By way of example, in some embodiments of the present invention, some orall of the remote sensing units may periodically broadcast informationto other remote sensing units, a local aggregator and/or a system hub,regardless as to whether not an incident has occurred. In theseembodiments, the remote sensing units may communicate, for example, atleast their current location and perhaps other information such as rawor processed data from a subset of their sensors. By continuouslybroadcasting such information, when an incident is reported by a remotesensing unit, the system may be able to immediately identify theadditional remote sensing units that are in the vicinity of thepotential incident.

In still other embodiments, the decision making process may primarilyoccur at the system hub as opposed to at the remote sensing units. Insuch embodiments, the remote sensing units may regularly or continuouslytransmit sensed data to the system hub, and the system hub then uses thesensed data collected from one or more remote sensing units to make theinitial determination as to whether or not an incident has occurred.

In yet additional embodiments of the present invention, an individualwho has access to a remote sensing unit (i.e., the individual carrying aremote sensing unit or driving a car that includes a remote sensingunit) may have the capability to specify that an incident has occurred.For example, after the driver of one automobile hits another automobile,the driver could press a button or activate some other input mechanismon the remote sensing unit that indicates that an incident justoccurred. By doing so, the driver may be able to accelerate the system'sresponse to the incident, and also ensure that all relevant sensors areactivated, as many incidents (such as a car wreck) can lead to otherincidents (such as additional car wrecks). Providing this capability mayalso help ensure that data relating to the incident is not lateroverwritten because the system fails to properly determine that anincident has occurred (i.e., the system experiences a false negative).

As discussed above, in embodiments of the present invention, each remotesensing unit may periodically (or continuously) transmit at least basicinformation to a local aggregator or system hub such as, for example, anidentification number, a location, a time, etc. This information mayallow the system hub to know a priori how many remote sensing units thatare in any particular area. If multiple remote sensing units in aspecific area near simultaneously communicate incident alerts, this maytend to strongly indicate that an incident has occurred (and this may bea factor that is considered by the stored standards 640 and 740 indetermining whether an incident has occurred). Conversely, receipt of anincident alert from one remote sensing unit and the absence of receiptof incident alerts from one or more co-located remoter sensing units(e.g., when several individuals are riding in an automobile and eachindividual has a remote sensing unit) may tend to indicate that anincident has not occurred (and this also may be a factor that isconsidered by the stored standards 640 and 740 in determining whether anincident has occurred).

It will also be appreciated that the systems according to the abovedescribed embodiments of the present invention may be operated as asubscription service system. Individuals may purchase or lease remotesensing units, and pay, for example, monthly fees to have access to thesystem. The subscription service system may permanently store incidentdata as part of this system, so that subscribers can later access anduse that information as needed (e.g., in legal proceedings, to give tomedical providers, etc.). The subscription service system may alsoautomatically initiate responses to identified incidents. Subscriberscould subscribe to different levels of service, and could customize thetype of service provided (e.g., are family members automaticallycontacted after an automobile accident). In still other embodiments,remote sensing units could offer to sell their sensed data when suchdata is requested by a system hub or other remote sensing units.

In still further embodiments of the present invention, elements of thesystem (e.g., a system hub or a remote sensing unit) may send outnotifications to other remote sensing units and/or users of the system.By way of example, upon identifying that an automobile accident hasoccurred at a specific location, a system hub might send outnotifications of the incident to other remote sensing units in thegeneral vicinity of the accident (or who are traveling on the road onwhich the accident occurred). This notification service could, in someembodiments, be operated as a subscription service. This notificationservice might only be used for a specific subset of the different typesof incidents that the system attempts to identify.

In the drawings and specification, there have been disclosed exemplaryembodiments of the invention. Although specific terms are employed, theyare used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes oflimitation, the scope of the invention being defined by the followingclaims.

That which is claimed is:
 1. A remote sensing unit, comprising: aplurality of sensors to collect sensed data; a storage unit to at leasttemporarily store the sensed data; a processor to analyze the senseddata to determine if an incident has occurred; and a communications unitto communicate with multiple ones of a plurality of additional remotesensing units in response to a determination that an incident hasoccurred, wherein the communications unit is further to request andreceive data from the plurality of additional remote sensing units inresponse to a determination that an incident has occurred.
 2. The remotesensing unit of claim 1, wherein the processor is further to morepermanently store a subset of the sensed data in response to adetermination that an incident has occurred.
 3. The remote sensing unitof claim 2, wherein the processor is further to distinguish between aplurality of different types of incidents.
 4. The remote sensing unit ofclaim 3, wherein the processor is further to send a message via thecommunications unit to a remote entity in response to a determinationthat a certain type of incident has occurred.
 5. The remote sensing unitof claim 1, wherein the sensed data is first sensed data, wherein theremote sensing unit is to receive and aggregate second sensed data fromanother remote sensing unit, and wherein the processor is to determineif the incident has occurred based on both the first sensed data and thesecond sensed data.
 6. The remote sensing unit of claim 2, wherein thecommunication unit is further to request that one of the plurality ofadditional remote sensing units more permanently store a subset of datait has collected in response to a determination that an incident hasoccurred.
 7. A system for automatically responding to an incident, thesystem comprising: a main processor; a main storage unit; and acommunication unit, wherein the communication unit is to receive dataabout the incident from a plurality of remote sensing units, wherein themain processor is to make a determination as to whether one of aplurality of incidents is likely to have occurred based on datacollected from multiple ones of the plurality of remote sensing unitsand stored standards stored in the main storage unit, wherein the mainprocessor is further to automatically notify a remote entity via thecommunication unit upon making a determination that the one of theplurality of incidents is likely to have occurred, and wherein thesystem further includes stored pre-defined instructions that specify thetypes of remote entities that are to be automatically notified formultiple ones of the plurality of incidents.
 8. The system of claim 7,wherein the multiple ones of the plurality of remote sensing unitsinclude stored personal information relating to individuals that areassociated with respective ones of the multiple ones of the plurality ofremote sensing units.